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  From: Mark Newton <newton@atdot.dotat.org>
  To  : Rick Marshall <rjm@herzfeld.com.au>
  Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 07:32:16 +0930 (CST)

Re: Opinions on New Internet Bill (While I am still allowed to

Rick Marshall wrote:

 > FWIW - its illegal to produce and publish certain offensive and anti-social
 > material. Defining web sites as publishing and requiring ratings (largely an
 > honesty system) for potentially offensive or anti-social material as is the
 > case with magazines right now would have been much better and manageble.
 > Material from another country (or Canberra) is the problem of the foreign
 > power. And - why haven't the state governments complained. Rating  material
 > is a Federal responsibility, controlling entry to Australia is a Federal
 > problem, deciding what is legal in each state is a state problem.

I disagree - The only reason any Government has ever introduced content-
specific ratings on published material is to ban it.  Ratings aren't
used to warn consumers, they're used to sift and sort content into 
boxes so that later you can say that the contents of certain boxes are
banned. 

Even if that's not the way it starts out, that's the way it ends.  Another
thing Governments always do with rating systems is tighten them up for
political reasons over time (witness what's happened to television and
film/video over the last 12 months).

 >  Seems to me this legislation may be unconstitutional as the Federal
 > government may lack the constitional power to enforce or regulate it.

Unlikely.  Drug regulation is just as unenforcible and unregulatable,
but I don't see them declaring that invalid on constitutional grounds.

I don't think we'll see any help from the High Court.

 > It's a bit like drugs - punishing the consumer (what this legislation does)
 > will never control the source of supply. We shouldn't just lobby against the
 > legislation because it does raise issues that are real concerns in the
 > community - we should actively promote attacking the source and show how the
 > internet can be used in the fight against undesirables, communists,
 > non-caucasians, serbs, indonesians, ....

See you on the steps of the State Library at 3:00 on Sunday, then.

   - mark

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem,                    newton@atdot.dotat.org
     but it hurt when I walked.                          Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 -----

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